High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748 Evolution in the Development of Standards and Technology Solutions for Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) Dimov Stojce Ilcev Space Science Centre (SSC), Durban University of Technology (DUT), Durban, South Africa, E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This article describes the development evolution of analog color television (TV) and upgrading of a new digital and High Definition Television (HDTV) solutions for public and household applications. With the exception of the revolutionary move from analog to digital, television has generally evolved gradually, driven by a calculated combination of technology advances, the desire to refresh the consumer electronics market, and an often industry-inflamed public demand for more and better entertainment options. Over the years, consumers have been offered “cable-ready” devices to pick up the hundreds of channels being broadcast by cable systems and a wide variety of high definition televisions with varying levels of pixel quality in both interlaced and progressive format. Most recently, leveraging existing HD standards and some theatrical successes, Consumer Electronics (CE) manufacturers, programmers, and content delivery networks have endeavored to introduce 3 Dimensional TV (3DTV) into the marketplace with varying degrees of success. Here is also shortly given a look at the differences between analog, digital, HDTV and UHDTV, with current 4K and forthcoming 8K TV systems. Key Words: HDTV, UHDTV, CRT, NTSC, DTV, SDTV, 4K ULTRA HDTV, 8K ULTRA HDTV 1. Introduction Since its initial development in the 1920’s, the first public broadcast in 1939, and widespread adoption of new technology worldwide in the 1950’s, television rapidly continues to mesmerize its worldwide audience. Spanning from the time of original electro-mechanical rotating mirror-drum scanners and Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) device to today’s public and household studios stapled of the flat-screen television. The HDTV solution, also known as Full HD (1920×1080 px) was introduced to the USA in the 1990’s, and along with the personal smartphone remains among the most popular consumer electronic devices in history. However, television is destined to evolve once again in its developments and in such a way to bring technology revolution with the last technique and innovation of Ultra HDTV design in public and household environments. When the first HDTV sets hit the world electronic market in 1998, households, movie buffs, sports fans, public viewers, and tech aficionados got pretty excited and for good reason, they improved their entertainment. Ads for the sets hinted at a television paradise with superior resolution and digital surround sound. With HDTV, people could also play movies in their original widescreen format without the letterbox “black bars” that some individuals find annoying. But for a lot of people, HDTV has not delivered a ready-made source for transcendent experiences in front of the tube. Instead, people have gone shopping for a TV and found themselves surrounded by confusing abbreviations and too many choices. Some have even hooked up their new HDTV sets only to discover that the picture doesn’t look much better. Fortunately, a few basic facts easily dispel all of this confusion. The development of the standards and technology solutions of the HDTV also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD, and Super Hi-Vision today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Thus, these new UHD standards were first proposed by the Japanese company "NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STLR) from Tokyo and later defined and approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) from Geneva. It is a Digital Television (DTV) standard, and the successor to high- definition television (HDTV), which in turn was the successor to Standard-Definition Television (SDTV). The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) researchers built a UHDTV prototype and demonstrated in 2003. They used an array of 16 HDTV recorders with a total capacity of almost 3.5 Tb (Terabyte) that could capture up to 18 minutes of test footage. The camera itself was built with four 2.5 inches (64 mm) Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) image sensors, each with a resolution of only 3840×2048. Using two CCD image sensors for green and one each for red and blue, they then used a spatial pixel offset method to bring it to 7680×4320. A review of the NAB 2006 demo was published in a Broadcast Engineering E-newsletter. The NHK and other experts projected the timeframe for UHDTV to be available in Japanese homes between 2015 and 2020, but they got it in 2016. Subsequently, an improved and more compact system was built using CCD image sensors technology and the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) device. The Consumer Electronics Asociation announced on 17 October 2012, that Ultra High Definition (UHD), or Ultra HD, would be used for displays that have an aspect ratio of 16:9 or wider and at least one digital input capable of carrying and presenting native video at a minimum resolution of 3840×2160 pixels. In 2015, the Ultra HD Forum was created to bring together the end-to-end video production ecosystem to ensure interoperability and produce industry guidelines so that the adoption of ultra-high-definition television could accelerate. From just 30 in Q3 2015, the forum published a list of up to 55 commercial services available around the world offering 4K resolution. The UHD Alliance, an industry consortium of content creators, distributors, and hardware manufacturers, announced during a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 press conference its Ultra HD Premium specification, which defines resolution, bit depth, color gamut, High-Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) and High-Dynamic Range Rendering (HDRR) required for Ultra HD (UHDTV) content and displays to carry their Ultra HD Premium logo. Volume 26, Issue 10, 2020 1053 http://www.gjstx-e.cn/ High Technology Letters ISSN NO : 1006-6748 Figure 1. Analog Color TV Set Moreover, on 2 November 2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of a UHDTV program over a 260 km distance by a fiber optic network. Using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex (DWMA), 24 Gb/s speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals. On 19 May 2011, the Japanese Sharp company in collaboration with NHK demonstrated a direct-view 85 in (220 cm) LCD display capable of 7680×4320 pixels at 10 bits per pixel (b/p). It was the first direct-view Super Hi-Vision-compatible display released. In April 2012, NHK (in collaboration with Panasonic) announced a 145 in (370 cm) display (7680×4320 at 60 fps), which has 33.2 million 0.417 mm square pixels. On 6 January 2013, the NHK announced that Super Hi-Vision satellite broadcasts could begin in Japan in 2016. Then, on 22 January 2014, European Southern Observatory became the first scientific organization to deliver Ultra HD footage at regular intervals. Then Indian satellite pay TV provider Tata Sky launched UHD service and UHD Set Top Box on 9 January 2015, so the Cricket World Cup 2015 was telecast live in 4K for free to those who own Tata Sky's UHD 4K STB. In May 2015, France Television broadcast matches from Roland Garros live in Ultra HD via the EUTELSAT 5 West A satellite in the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. The channel "France TV Sport Ultra HD" was available via the Fransat platform for viewers in France. In June, SES launched its first Ultra HD demonstration channel for cable operators and content distributors in North America to prepare their systems and test their networks for Ultra HD delivery. The channel is broadcast from the SES-3 satellite at 103°W. The "UHD Alliance", an industry consortium of content creators, distributors, and hardware manufacturers, announced Monday on the 11th of January 2016 during CES 2016 press conference its "Ultra HD Premium" specification, which defines resolution, bit depth, color gamut, High-Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) and High-Dynamic Range Rendering rendering (HDRR) required for Ultra HD (UHDTV) content and displays to carry their Ultra HD Premium logo. In May 2016, Modern Times Group, owner of the ViaSat DTH platform announced the launch of ViaSat Ultra HD, the first UHD channel for the Nordic region and the first UHD Sports channel in the World. On 29 September 2017, BSAT-4a, dedicated for UHDTV programming and was also claimed "the world's first 8K satellite", was launched from the Guiana Space Centre aboard Ariane 5 rocket. In April 2018, RTL started broadcasting its own UHD channel in Germany. First available at Astra 10.2oE satellite, the Channel shows UHD productions, Formula 1, Football, and Deutschland Sucht den Superstar. In June 2018, FuboTV broadcast the 2018 FIFA World Cup live in 4K and HDR10 becoming the first Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming service to do so. Finally, in May 2019, for the first time in Europe, 8K demonstration content was received via satellite without the need for a separate external receiver or decoder. At the 2019 SES Industry Days conference at Betzdorf, Luxembourg broadcast quality 8K content (with a resolution of 7680 × 4320 pixels at 50 FPS) was encoded using a Spin Digital HEVC encoder (at a bit rate of 70 Mbit/s), uplinked to a single 33 MHz transponder on SES' Astra 28.2oE satellites and the downlink received and displayed on a Samsung 82 in (210 cm) Q950RB production model TV. 2. Era of Analog and Digital Television Systems The UHDTV is already in our homes together with its improved version of 4K, but a new 8K TV design is coming on the scene and it is going to happen sooner than anyone first anticipated. For years, watching TV has involved analog signals and Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) sets.